Layers and Reflections
by Silea
Summary: In the wake of Manhattan’s destruction the X-men try to rebuild the mansion and their life, searching for a new equilibrium. In the mist of it, Storm and Sage have to balance an attraction that could be so much more between them. Edited Femslash
1. Lucky Night

_**  
Disclaimer:**__ Marvel owns the X-men._

_**Author's note:**_ This time around I'll not make you any promises about updates. Every time I made one I ended up breaking it. I swear it seems a curse.

Now, about the story. I have edited it, rewritten parts of it, added to it and even changed the timeline a little bit (the scene from chapter 1 for example before happened later in the story).

I hope you like it better, let me know if you do.

* * *

**  
Layers and Reflections.**

_**  
Chapter 1: A Lucky Night.**_

_**  
Xavier's Institute.**_

It just wasn't a good night for Emma.

For instance she was still awake at almost four in the morning when she had a class at nine. So, after a couple of hours of fruitless attempts to gain sleep, she had finally decided to make a trip to the kitchen, the nearest place with an alcohol supply.

Emma was surprised, pleasantly so, to find out that for once the Mansion was soundless, and that even to a light mind scan nobody seemed to be awake, thus giving her a clear way to the alcohol supply. _"Good…"_ There would be no one around to pry on the reasons of her late nigh drink, or better yet, drinks. The blonde's shoulders relaxed slightly in an unconscious response to the lessening of the tension she was feeling. No one to deal with, and in the mood Emma was in, she didn't know if it was better for her or the others. She had enough to worry about without putting the X-men in the mix. It was then she made the mistake to think that the luck had turned in her favor.

Mistake that became glaringly obvious when Emma reached the kitchen and saw someone else in the room. The room that should have been empty. The blonde halted on the door, unable to prevent an instinctive grimace.

Sage was seated at the table, and that, other than being a very unpleasant surprise, was all the proof Emma needed to know the luck had completely shunned her tonight. To be truthful those last months seemed to be luck's cruel revenge for every time Emma had beaten the odds in her life. _"It sure would explain many things…"_ The blonde thought cynically even while schooling her mind to not think about _them_.

Silently cursing herself for not being paranoid enough to make a deep mind scan before making her way in a room, and blaming Charles influence for not feeling the need to do it anymore, Emma forced herself to enter. It was bad enough that Tessa had seen her hesitate at the door, she wouldn't give the other woman the satisfaction to see her run away.

"I thought you never ate." Emma said snidely seeing Sage biting a sandwich with something resembling gusto. Seeing Tessa awoke many unpleasant memories: of betrayals, deaths, long standing hurts and deep, soul wrenching, aches. In Emma's current state of mind, it could lead only to aggressiveness and hostility. "After all computers' don't." The blond added sneering.

Emma was angry at herself for not having picked up the other presence even if it wasn't strange to fail to notice Sage on a light scan. After all Tessa was one of the few in the mansion able to appear to light mind scans as a background noise, if you weren't searching for her specifically. And Emma hadn't, for two different motives. First, rarely Sage was seen in the mansion, she preferred to stay away from the principal building and most often than not, people. Second, in the last few weeks Storm's team had spent more time in mission than around the mansion.

From what Emma had heard they had found out that behind the recent string of robberies across the west coast, there was a single criminal organization. One that, if needed for particular jobs, hired mutant mercenary without a second thought. That had been the reason why the X.S.E. had been involved in the case. So Sage and the others had spent the last few weeks trying to shut it down.

"Obviously you were wrong." Sage informed her, her tone even, after having swallowed. The brunette could easily read the anger and frustration coming from the White Queen, almost begging to have a single reason, or not even that, to be let out. Emma's mind wasn't in a good place tonight. After years spent dealing with her, Sage knew the only way to avoid a full scale outburst was not rising up to her insults. And tonight Tessa really didn't want to deal with a White Queen's temper tantrum.

Annoyed at the lack of reaction, Emma changed topic. "So why here? I thought that you and your little friends had your own house… am I wrong again?" The White Queen said while searching the cupboards for a bottle of whiskey. _"Damn, I have to domesticate the X-men. I don't understand how they have survived until now without a wine cellar and a stash of good liquors… probably the only one that has any is Logan... and I really don't want to think about what he could consider good stuff." _

"So it seems." Sage replied laconically, taking another bit from her sandwich observing the White Queen move around the kitchen. The other woman was tense, almost edgy in her gestures, when usually Emma was elegant and poised. Apparently she wasn't the only one to be bothered by something tonight.

Emma ignored Tessa and her silent study, continuing to rustle around the kitchen's cupboards. _"Ah, ah, I found it... I knew that they only pretended to be saints."_ Emma pulled the bottle out of the cabinet studying it for a moment before nodding to herself. _"Vodka, good enough for tonight..."_ She put it on the table, then searched for a glass before seating in the chair in front of Sage.

"Well, now that we have found each other in this splendid night, what we will ever do?" Emma began, knowing it would bother Sage. If the brunette was here, in a place nobody would search for her, at this time of the night, when nobody was around, and purposefully not rising to her slurs, there could be only one reason. She didn't want to be bothered. And if Emma couldn't have what she wanted, to be left alone with her problems, than neither Tessa would have it.

So, finally with a clear aim for the night, Emma proceeded to annoy the hell out of Sage. "What do you say, we tell each other our innermost secrets?" The blonde proposed sarcastically, pouring a glass of vodka. "I hear it's a common trait between the X-men. They seem to enjoy annoying the hell out of each others with their problems. Or maybe, considering the alarmingly frequency with which they do it, is more a compulsion…"

Sage simply took another bite from her sandwich, hiding a smirk. The White Queen wasn't the only one to find that particular habit of their team mates unreasonable and slightly absurd. Sure, both of them could be defined secretive paranoids by the standards of the majority of the population, and the X-men were all friends, more or less, but they still couldn't really understand the necessity of pouring one's heart out to someone, often more than one. Your problems were your own. And you never quite knew when that someone would betray you. So, letting someone know all yours secrets wasn't only dangerous, it was downright stupid.

But maybe this too was just another left over of their past. After all one of them was, or had been, a spy on a deep cover for years, and the other a self made entrepreneur who had lead at least two whole different lives throughout most of her lifetime.

What neither of them quite realized on a conscious level, was that the presence of the other was reassuringly in its familiarity, more so when both their minds were in turmoil. So without effort they fell right back in the old way they had developed to deal with each other bad moods, silently studying each other in a old game they began playing years ago.

Sage could still see the White Queen's too tense shoulders, a sure indication of worry, the ever so slight downturn of her mouth with lips that were pressed together just a bit too forcefully that necessary, that screamed rage and anger at whoever happened to really know the blonde. Emma had recognized Sage's too-perfect-to-be-real mask of disinterest, the one she wore when she didn't want to have an expression rather than the one she had when she really didn't care, that strange stillness Tessa had when she was uncertain about something, the same Emma suspected to be a sign of fear.

The game had begun when all was about power and they had been among the best of players. It was just another way to show the other how much powerful one was, be it trough an astute observations based only on the other body language to hurt or embarrass them or trough a personal attack based on costly, often, and painfully, sometimes, information obtained to undermine their position or their currents plans. After all it wasn't by chance than one got in the Hellfire inner circle.

Still, the one between them was a comfortable silence. This scene was a familiar one and both of them could have said that they had missed it. And, considering the nature of their game it probably meant they had a sadomasochist side a mile wide.

"I thought you avoided the mansion." Emma said opening the game, the rules of which sounded more or less like "anything goes but mutant powers and fist fights" and "any topic is up to grab". The winner was the first who made back down the other. _"Our little sadistic game… I wonder who will leave this table more hurt in the end…"_

"Should I?"

Sage asked apparently uninterested. Emma was right, she really tried to avoid the mansion or at least she did try to avoid the X-men. She didn't care about their general attitude and she simply didn't have a strong enough reason to try to change it. So often she waited for the night to wander about the mansion. She liked it better, less people around and many less problems. If they didn't want her around she hadn't any intention to search them out or impose herself on them. She liked to be unobserved. And she knew that this attitude puzzled and enraged Emma. The White Queen was her exact opposite. She did try to impose her presence, she responded to distrust with arrogance, and often Sage had seen her hunting down those who didn't want her around.

"They are still nervous around you." Emma observed with a slightly amused tone. Sometimes the X-men's utter stupidity was entertaining. They all went around with tons of misplaced guilt about petty things, and with their "Holier than thou" attitude were always ready to place the blame in all the wrong places. "They don't trust you." Emma had seen in Sage's eyes the need to finally be able to trust someone completely and to be trusted by them was the first step. Still they didn't seem to be able to see past the label "spy"._ "Their loss…"_

"They still despise you." Sage replied not correcting the previous statement. It was the truth after all. "You are not good enough for them." She added knowing it was a sore point for Emma. It had always been.

"True, they seem to not have any taste whatsoever." Emma sighed theatrically. _"One all…."_ The thing disturbed her much more that she let on. So she had resorted to her old tricks. Someone hurts you, you hurt them more. Sometimes it was even funny to make their lives hard. "And they seem to be particularly dense." The tone sounded like a blend between resentment, exasperation and amusement. "They behave as if it's your fault that Charles sent you to spy in the Hellfire club."

"Not all of them." _She_ didn't. She trusted Sage and Sage was beginning to learn to trust back more and more.

"No, not all." Emma conceded. _"Point to Sage…" _The first name that came to Emma's mind was that of Storm. The woman continued to demonstrate herself to be brighter than most of the X-men.

To be honest the White Queen had been surprised when she had learned that Ororo had left the institute. More surprising had been the cause of that action. Storm didn't believe anymore that Charles' way was the only way. _"That day I was almost ready to congratulate sincerely her. The key word there is "almost"."_ She thought with a mental smirk. _"Storm seems to be one of the few X-men able to believe that Charles isn't a saint."_ While reflecting about the African's choices, Emma began to put together something that she had unconsciously noticed from some time. "Ororo is attracted to you." She said almost to herself, realizing it just now.

"I know." Sage replied simply, not bothering to deny it. It was the truth, they both knew it, and she didn't want to hide it. At the contrary, she cherished it. And in a way it was the reason she was here tonight.

"That somehow doesn't surprise me." Emma had a grin on her face. There wasn't much that escaped Sage's attention. "And my guess is that nobody else has yet noticed anything." Then she added after a snort. "The X-men are simply too dense to notice something like it."

Sage almost smiled at Emma's need to always bad mouth the X-men. Sooner or later she would point out to the White Queen that she too was one of them now. Not that she didn't agree wholeheartedly with the blonde's observation this time. But for a few of them, the X-men didn't shine for their understanding of subtle interactions. And Emma was right, nobody had noticed what was happening between them. And to be honest Sage liked the lack of insight. The cyberpath hated the idea that everybody around her would know what was going on. Especially when she still didn't know what would come from it.

"I wouldn't never pegged you as Storm's type." Emma commented after taking a sip of her vodka. _"But I have to admit that she has good taste. And she is patient enough to catch someone like Tessa. If Sage ever decides to get caught..."_ The White Queen fell silent for long minutes studying carefully the cyberpath, who was eating ever so calmly her sandwich, as if it was normal for the two of them to talk about attraction and love. _"…maybe the X-men are really infecting_ _us with their compulsions… soon we'll start to make small talk…"_ It wasn't something she cared to think about so she disregarded it.

Still, something was nagging her about the topic. _"Love…"_ There was something else there, she was sure. As if Ororo's attraction to Sage didn't explain all she had seen. Emma recalled all the interactions she had witnessed between the two. There were been hardly any. As always Sage tended to avoid all people, and Storm avoided her specifically. It made observing someone… difficult…

She recalled these instances and examined carefully what she remembered about the brunette's eyes, her body language, her words, her tone. In months there had been just a clue or two. Little things that probably would have escaped anyone else. Then, with a wolfish grin, Emma added. "Hell, I didn't pegged her as your type." Before now she hadn't even know that there was a _type_ Sage could be attracted to. "Always the surprising one, eh?" She updated the score to two all.

Emma had always regarded the cyberpath as a strictly one night stand woman or at most one for short relationships without any real emotional attachment. _"Like myself. And yet…"_ "And yet you two aren't together…" Knowing that she had hit a sensitive topic Emma started taunting Sage. "What could be the problem? Maybe your projections give this relationships as doomed."

"There are too many variables to be certain one way or another."

Came the smooth reply. Too smooth, thus confirming to the White Queen that to Sage the eventual success of the relationship mattered enough to think at length about it. Emma smirked at the discovery, knowing she had found a flaw in the other's defenses._ "Three to two…"_

"Or maybe you are afraid of the closeness…" Emma provoked further. "After all you spent how many years hiding your true self?" It was a all but subtle reference to Sage's years spent as a deep cover spy. The brunette's complete stillness was all the confirmation the White Queen needed to know she had scored again. _"Four to two…"_ "…having to keep everybody at arm's length…" The blonde was right, maybe more than she knew, certainly more Tessa would ever admit to her. Her job, her mission, had kept her from allowing herself the comfort of letting anybody get close enough to know her.

After all the White Queen thought that the hellfire years had been the only ones during which she had been forced to be another person. To do things she didn't want to, associating whit people she would rather shoot than talk to, or to ignore her own feelings and hopes for the success of her mission. That hadn't been the first, or only, time Tessa had been forced to act that way, not by a long shot. All that years spent being someone else had changed her more that she really liked to evaluate and in ways she wasn't at all happy with.

Trying to press her advantage Emma followed that line of thought. "Maybe the simple idea to let anyone near is enough to terrorize you…"

Sage answered calmly but with the ghost of a smile, letting the blonde know she had made a mistake, the words just confirmed it. "That's your hang up, Emma. Not mine." The White Queen almost flinched at the accurate retort. _"Four to three." _Sage updated the score. "After years you still don't understand me." Oh, Emma was one of the few persons in the world who could actually predict with a certain amount of certain her actions or reaction, but the blonde had never quite figured out what made her thick, so to speak. "You still think the motives behind my actions are the same as yours… you always have…" They both knew that was the reason why the White Queen had never suspected Sage to be a spy in the Hellfire club. Sage actions always were perfectly appropriated for the situation they were in, the only thing Emma had never realized until it was too late, was that they were the decisions a power hungry person would have made, but Sage had never been after power, only information. _"Four all…"_

That was also why was not surprising that Emma was the first to pick up what was happening between Storm and the cyberpath. The White Queen had always be quite the observer, especially regarding the human emotions. "But I know you." Emma grinned, knowing that the fact pissed off the cyberpath. It was the truth and they both knew it.

"And you respect me." Sage replied with a wolfish grin of her own, for the same reason. Emma acknowledged the tie with a slight nod and an half smile before changing the topic. Their sick, sadistic game had ended, at least for this night.

She had missed Sage. Talking to her was always a challenge, and the White Queen loved a good debate and a quick wit. Sage's was one of the sharpest around. _"And, after all the ever polite X-men her directness is refreshing." _Emma mused, smirking just a bit._ "They can't even hate me without being polite." _

"So, Ororo... someone quite dangerous and untamed. An odd choice." Emma said pouring another glass of vodka but not drinking it. Alcohol was a good way to relax, but a bad one to concentrate. To spar, or even to talk, with Sage she would need all her faculties. "If someone would have told me years, or even months ago, I'd laughed at the fool."

"If someone would have told me of you and Scott I'd laughed too." Came the swift reply. "Or at least smiled."

"Probably smiled." Emma conceded with a wry grin. In all the years she had known Sage, she had never seen her laugh.

"Strange choice yours too." The brunette commented after a bit. The pause had been long enough to let Emma know Tessa had weighed up whether to speak up or not. It made alarm bells sound in her mind. "He is so plain and predictable, the opposite of your type. But you are in love with him." Sage summarized.

"You too are in love." The White Queen shot back, suddenly feeling vulnerable and not liking it a bit. Sage had been right when she had said she was deeply afraid of being close to someone.

"Probably." The cyberpath conceded with a slight nod. Then added with an even tone. "With the situation as it is now, it will end badly between you two, Emma."

"Fuck you Tessa." The White Queen snarled raising from the chair and planting her hands on the table, pointlessly trying to intimidate Sage in retracting her words. It didn't work. It had never worked.

"It's only a opinion." Sage replied blandly, trying to not provoke further the White Queen. But her eyes hadn't left the blue ones, letting Emma know it was really what she thought, that she wasn't saying it only to bait the other woman. Efficiently reassuring the blonde that their game had really ended. It didn't make the blonde feel better.

"And how do you know that between you and the wind rider there will be an happy ending?" Emma asked sarcastically, trying to hurt Tessa back. It was wrong hurt someone back only because they had told the truth and it had hurt you. The White Queen knew it, even if almost everyone who had met her was certain she had just never quite understood that simple rule. Oh, she understood it, still that knowledge had never stopped the blonde from retorting back in the past, nor had it now.

"If there will be an us it will end well, or at least not badly, because she loves me." The brunette was certain that Ororo loved her to some degree, her actions told her that much, she just wasn't certain to which. "Probably she is in love with me." A pause. Sage added the rest with a soft tone, trying to not hurt Emma more than needed. "Can you say the same for Scott?"

There was several seconds of silence. _"In lust? Sure. Maybe he even cares for me. In love? No… no matter what I try, no matter what I like to tell to myself the answer is no_…" The blond sighed tiredly, knowing all too well the truth she spent so much time avoiding."Sometimes I hate you."Emma said in the end, seating again in her chair.

"And sometimes I respect you." Sage said shrugging her shoulders and finishing the last bite of her sandwich. "Be careful Emma. If I'm right, it will hurt." A warning. Not kind but honest. They weren't friends, there was too much history between them to be. Too many betrayals due to conflicting agendas. Too many lies told for their own sake and sanity. And even if they hadn't meet each other in the Hellfire club, where no one could afford to trust another, their lives had taught them long ago to simply not trust another.

Their relationship was a complex one. There were far much more gray areas that black and white. They didn't like each other but sometime they found themselves to look out for the other. Other times all they cared about was best the other, by any means. "_And sometimes I go out of my way to hurt her. I wouldn't surprised to know that even she does it from time to time."_ The White Queen thought. _"The day I will have a normal, healthy relationship with anyone will be the day Hell freeze over." _So, she nodded her head at the warning. "It's too late to be careful." Emma said with a dry laugh, drinking the vodka and pouring another glass. "_Way too late…"_ It remained maybe a third of the bottle, maybe less. After the talk they had had Emma knew the bottle would be empty before the end of the night. "Good luck with the wind rider, Sage." She wished honestly.

"I don't believe in luck." The cyberpath replied from over her shoulder leaving the kitchen.

"Neither do I." Emma said staring at the bottom of her glass for some time before refilling it.


	2. Beginnings

_**  
Disclaimer:**__ Marvel owns the X-men._

_**Author's note:**_ This time around I'll not make you any promises about updates. Every time I made one I ended up breaking it. I swear it seems a curse.

Now, about the story. I have edited it, rewritten parts of it, added to it and even changed the timeline a little bit (the scene from chapter 1 for example before happened later in the story).

I hope you like it better, let me know if you do.

* * *

**  
Layers and Reflections.**

**  
Chapter 2: Beginnings **

_**  
Los Angeles. A warehouse.**_

"Bishop! Get down!" With her line of fire now free, Sage shot two rounds, efficiently neutralizing her target. Falling, the man didn't make a sound.

That they were caught in a ambush was clear enough to understand. A moment they had been apparently alone in the warehouse, the next someone had opened the fire against them. Exactly how they were going to came out of it alive was a little trickier to figure out. Being surrounded by an unknown number of gang's members, all of whom seemed to be armed with some type of sub-machine gun or another, in an old warehouse full of crates of explosives, wasn't one of the more amusing situation in which Sage had been.

But it wasn't the worse, by far.

It seemed a simple enough situation for people like the X-men. They were the ones that came out alive against all odds after all, and those were just some youngster with more firepower than brains, training or guts to use it properly. Most of their shots were too high or too wide to even hit the crates behind which Sage and Bishop were hidden.

Still Sage was not smiling. She was busy calculating probabilities.

The probabilities that one member of the gang had to hit one of the crates with the sheer volume of fire that a machine gun could produce. One of the crates with the logo of a stylized red dragon on their sides, piled in several stacks around the warehouse. The one she had just found out contained explosives.

Bishop carefully shifted his position, responding to the fire from behind one of the crates without said logo. "How many, Sage?" He asked while recharging his gun. He didn't like to be in a tight spot of any genre but if he really had to be in one he had decided long ago that Sage was one of the best people to have besides him.

"There are fifteen still. Five incapacitated." Blue eyes scanned the warehouse, noting the position of the thugs as planning the fastest and safest route out of there.

"Not a problem." Lucas shot another three round forcing one of the thugs to hide behind his own crate. Even with the huge disparity in fire power, the lacking skill of the thugs assured that the majority of their bullets came nowhere near their targets.

"We _have_ a problem Bishop." Sage said instead.

A remark like that was enough to worry Lucas. "What it is?" He knew her enough to know that if Sage admitted that there was a problem, without being asked, it had to be a damn big one.

"Half the crates of this warehouse contain explosives." Sage continued to shoot. Two rounds more, a thug less.

"Shit…" He felt the adrenaline shot up skyward at the news. "OK, how can we get out?"

"Twenty feet to your right, behind those bins and crates there is a grid. It's one of the air vent of the warehouse. "

Lucas nodded once. At the first lull in the fire he ran to the vent, careful to stay hidden during his run. Near the wall Bishop began to move the crates and the odd crap as quickly as capable, while Sage was continuing to hold back the gang.

A couple of minutes later Lucas had found and took apart the grid.

"Come on Sage, the way is free. "

The woman began to withdraw toward the vent, continuing to shoot. Seeing her back off, the gang's members began suddenly to acquire new courage. Two, no, three of them leaved their cover to converge towards the position of Sage and Lucas shooting.

"Bishop get in the vent, we have to get out of here. Now!"

He nodded rushing in the opening, his teammate only seconds behind him.

Then the sound of the submachine gun was overwhelmed by the blast.

* * *

**_Xavier's Institute. Several hours later._**

There was a light knock on the door.

"Come in. "

Ororo walked in the room silently appraising the furniture. Even if she had already been here, she was amazed every time.

It was simply beautiful. Classic, almost understated, but with an undercurrent of elegance. This room was a little jewel. Everything was perfect, from the position of the windows, which gave almost an artistic quality to the light, to the color scheme. To be truthful Ororo suspected that Sage had somehow managed to alter the architect's plan to fit her ideas. It was so different from her tower. Like the two room belonged to complete opposite people.

"I thought the doctors told you that you shouldn't work."

Storm observed, sounding amused. Not many of the X-men were good at taking down-time for medical reasons.

"I shouldn't move my shoulder and keep off my knee." Sage replied. "I'm doing it."

She was working as always thanks to her cybernetic shades. The only differences were the leg that rested on a stool and the imposing sling on her left arm. Apparently Sage was as fast typing with a single hand as she was with both.

Wisely Ororo changed topic. "So, are there news about what happened to the warehouse?"

Sage's lips tinned in an hard line for a fraction of second. A remarkable display of rage from her. "The only rational explanation is that there was a leak in the police department. Only they knew where we were going."

Storm nodded, an hard look in her eyes. Bishop and Sage were her teammates, and keeping them safe was her task. That was true more than ever now that they had joined the X.S.E..

"The survivors have talked?"

Of the initial twenty thugs that had ambushed the two X-men, only three had survived the experience. One of them was still in a coma due to the explosion, the others had a assortment of bruises and broken bones. Sage herself had escaped the encounter with a few souvenirs, like her sprained knee and the dislocated left shoulder, result of the shock wave.

"Bishop went to interrogate them. We should know something in about an hour or two. "

"Do you have an idea of the why they ambushed you?"

Ororo didn't like admit it but what happened had scared her. She had got a call from Bishop telling her that there had been an explosion and Sage and himself were at the hospital. After Jean's and Betsy's deaths, without counting what had happened to Rogue and Gambit, she had been particularly sensible about the security of her teammates. This year had not been kind towards the X-men.

"_Sometimes it seems a nightmare."_

"No, not yet." Sage replied, for the first time looking toward her, studying the older woman with her penetrating gaze, as if she knew where Storm thoughts had lead her. "But I doubt the level of threat will escalate. I think it's related with our investigation, but I strongly doubt they'll came actively after us."

Storm nodded, reassured by the analysis._"Sometimes she seems able to sense what I feel, what I think." _Initially Ororo had felt brutally assessed by Sage's searching gaze.

Tessa seemed capable of analytically tearing someone apart piece by piece, to understand how and why one acted like they did. Ororo hadn't never said anything to Sage about her initial uneasiness, even if she suspected the brunette had been aware of it.

After all that had happened to the other woman Storm had felt compelled to let her reassure herself about the intentions and motivation of the people around her. She couldn't begin to imagine what the years in the Hellfire Club had done to Sage's confidence in the other humans beings.

With time the gaze changed. As the trust between them had growth, the scrutiny of possible actions and reaction, had become a study of the feelings and humor. Now, Ororo knew that that penetrating gaze was nothing more than a peculiar trait. It was what Sage searched that made the firsts ones so different from this. Now it was only the proof that the brunette paid careful attention to the ones she trusted.

After almost a full minute Sage turned again towards her virtual keyboard, saying nothing.

Knowing that their talk had come to the end, Ororo left the room.

* * *

Bishop begun to cut the bacon, paying attention to the pots already on the stove.

It was the night of the weekly dinner with their team. As always he was the one doing the cooking while the others were scattered around the living room, some chatting, some drinking, all of them having a good time.

It had been an habit born almost accidentally but one that had soon gained enough importance to soon become a tradition always respected but for the times that their team was involved in a crisis big enough to need their complete attention.

"_But it's good for all of us."_

Almost all of them had lost their family in one way or another and this homely atmosphere probably filled up some needs that all of them felt but no one ever vocalized. He smiled remembering how much his teammates had been surprised to learn that he knew how to cook. It had happened at the beginning of their search for Destiny's Diaries, before Vargas, before Kahn.

He had been in a good mood, and had decided to finally use the kitchen in the house and make one of his favorites dishes. The others had appreciated if the many praises had been an indication. In the following weeks Lucas had begun to cook more often to the happiness of his friends. After they had come back to the mansion the informal meals had begun slowly working up in a planned weekly dinner.

Bishop looked up for a moment before adding the bacon in the frying pan, noting that the scene in the living room was slightly different from the norm.

Sage for once wasn't perched on a stool near the counter, talking to him. She was semi-reclined on the armchair nearest to the window, her left foot on a stool and her usual glass of red wine in hand. For once she didn't have her shades, Bishop noticed approvingly. She seemed to be simply relaxing, her gaze focused on a indefinite point somewhere in front of her.

Having left the armchair to Sage, her usual spot, Storm had elected to stand a couple of feet behind it. She was leaning slightly against the wall looking out of the window her back turned to the room, but every so often her gaze turned to the others. Bishop caught her looking in Sage's direction, a somewhat pensive look on her face. She had been strangely silent tonight. Lucas made a mental note to speak to her soon.

The other four were seated on the couch watching the television. Sam and Kurt were talking animatedly about something the news had just showed, while Rachel and Kitty were watching in silence, sometimes trading light comments between them. Wolverine wasn't here tonight, he had been called away a couple of hour before.

In a reversal of the norm it was Storm who walked to the counter, leaving Sage to gaze out of the window. Without saying anything the white haired woman spied over Bishop's shoulder at the pots, trying to find out what exactly he was cooking.

"You shouldn't go around to spy on whatever the chef is making, Ororo." The man scolded jokingly. "It's a sign of bad manners."

"You aren't fun Lucas." Storm smiled, still she gave up and perched herself on one of the stools.

"It's spaghetti alla Matriciana and beef Stroganoff. " Sage supplied from the armchair almost absently. She wasn't exactly following the exchange, but her mutant power made her aware enough of her surroundings to join in whenever she wished. For the same reason she didn't miss how Kurt jerked up, startled, nor the not exactly friendly gaze he shot her.

What she didn't notice was that Storm too had seen the exchange. The white haired woman didn't say anything about it, filing it away for now, choosing to follow the main exchange. Ororo couldn't help but smirk at Bishop's surprised face. It was funny seeing Sage and him bantering. "Oh, somebody already found out your secret…"

"And how would you know?" Bishop asked Tessa. The brunette had never come near the stove or even in the kitchen.

"Smell and ingredients." Came the dry reply from Sage who was sporting the ghost of a grin. On everyone else it would be a smug grin.

"I don't know why I'm even surprised." Bishop replied sighing. "I should know exactly how difficult is to surprise you by now."

With a wry grin Sage took a sip of her wine, actually closing the conversation while she had the upper hand. It was a tiny silly victory but so very amusing. The cyberpath loved joking around with Bishop.

"So chef, now that your secrets are out, want to tell what you discovered this afternoon?"

Storm asked a little more seriously.

"Nothing at all." Bishop snorted. "Those two didn't know nothing more that their boss wanted to see the federals dead_, 'because they were making too questions'_. It seems that the gang leader called them to their headquarters and gave them the sub-machines just an hour before we went in the warehouse. All they were told was something along the lines 'aim and shoot'. "

Ororo nodded, not at all happy about the situation. She didn't like one bit that suddenly local gang felt the need to shoot her teammates. "Didn't they know anything about the thefts or the assaults?"

"Nothing useful." Lucas replied turning back to cooking. "Probably if we investigated all the crimes in that neighborhood we could link them to some. But that's all. That single gang can't be responsible of every theft that happened. There were, and are, simply too many of those."

"You think that someone is organizing the local gangs?"

"I don't really think anything." Bishop shrugged, gently stirring the sauce. "We don't know if the various crimes are related. We only know from some videos and witnesses that at least eight of them has been done by mutants."

"So, we have nothing."

Storm summarized, passing an hand through her hair.

"Yeah." Lucas replied while adding the spaghetti in the frying pan. "It's a tricky case. Not difficult, but probably it will be long and tiresome. I don't know if we will ever find out who sold us."

Ororo nodded. She didn't like it, but she understood.

"Come on people. Dinner is ready."

Bishop called out.

* * *

Ororo was reclined on the stone steps that surrounded the pool in her hayloft, her gaze lost between the stars. The view of the night sky was beautiful. She could spend hours simply looking to the constellations. She often did.

Tonight her thoughts continued to bring her back to the dinner. Even if they were a team Kurt still didn't trust Sage. It wasn't obvious. He talked to her, was friendly towards her, ever the polite one, but he evidently didn't trust her.

And if he wasn't obvious, the effect of his actions on Sage were. Whenever he was in the room the cyberpath either left or reverted to be a silent shadow, artfully camouflaging herself with the background. Sometimes Ororo herself forgot that the brunette was in the room, and considering just how much attention she paid to Sage it was to say something. In the last months Storm had became extremely aware of everything that concerned the cyberpath, from the moods she was in, always something difficult to say in Sage's case, to the agenda of her day. Often she had found herself to unconsciously follow the brunette's every move, noticing every gesture, always knowing where the brunette was in relation to herself.

Thus in the past weeks sometimes Storm had felt annoyed or even mildly angry towards Kurt and his attitude. The first time that had happened it had upset and surprised her, after all Kurt was a dear friend and he hadn't done anything overtly wrong. At the beginning Ororo hadn't known even why she had reacted that way, but for the Arena influence on her, noting had really changed and she sure wasn't someone quick to anger. Then she had realized that somewhere in the last months she had become extremely protective towards Sage. And the german's attitude didn't sit well with her.

"_And I know perfectly why... now at least…"_

Ororo thought amused with herself. For someone so attuned to emotions sometimes she was blatantly blind to her own. But maybe it was so for everyone.

The sound of a cane on the floor attracted her attention to the door. She knew who it was and couldn't help to smile. Less than a minute later Sage's shape appeared.

In complete silence and without turning on the lights the cyberpath got to her side. It took some work but Sage made sitting on the steps with only a leg and a arm functioning elegant. Ororo found much of what the other woman did elegant. Lightly resting her back against the counter Sage looked up to the sky, silently joining her in her stargazing.

"The last time I was the one with the cane." Began Ororo, referring to the late night talks that she and Sage had in New Orleans. For some reason or another they had begun to meet ever night when all the others were sleeping. Sometimes they talked, other times they simply sat in silence gazing to the sky. IT was then their relationship had deepened and took form.

"But you still persist in sleeping too little."

"As you are." Ororo replied amused at the rebuke.

"I don't need it." Came the usual reply, for Storm it was another reason to smile. Every time they had had this conversation, even when their roles were reversed, Sage had given her the same answer. So the white haired woman decided to just continue with their normal script.

"You are still human Sage." An old topic, never an argument. Ororo had begun to make similar observations one of the nights they had spent together in New Orleans, apparently without a motive. The cyberpath had been surprised the first time that Storm had said something similar.

Many people, mutants and not alike, saw her only as a living computer, never as a human being. Generally the thing didn't annoy Sage. She was used to it and, even if it wasn't something she found pleasant, often it was a useful tactical advantage. But to know that Ororo, and Bishop too, saw her has a human being first was something Sage cherished.

They remained in companionable silence for some time, gazing to the stars. After some time Ororo turned her head and studied Sage instead. Her profile, once more something elegant in Tessa, the intensity so natural in her even when she studied the nighttime sky. And suddenly she had the almost impossible to resist need to touch Tessa's check with her fingertips, wondering if the skin was warm or cold. She remembered them warm from the blood they had been covered with the only time she had touched them. Aside from an occasional touch on her shoulders and arms, or the slight brushing of hands when exchanging something they had never really touched but for the day she had saved Sage from Bogan. Storm missed the feel. _"Maybe it's time to do something about it…"_ There would be complications and obstacles, as always. _"There'll be time enough for them later…"_

"The sky is beautiful, as always." Ororo said at last, going back to stargazing, another smile on her lips. She was going to enjoy this night, the rest she could figure out tomorrow.

"As are most natural things." Sage replied still looking up, she had felt Storm studying her but the white haired gaze hadn't ever made her uncomfortable, like everyone else had in the past. To be truthful she found it reassuring.

Ororo smiled briefly. Somehow she doubted that the others would believe exactly how much the cyberpath valued the nature. It had surprised even her. Pleasantly surprised.

The two remained up long in the night.


	3. Past and Future

_**  
Disclaimer:**__ Marvel owns the X-men._

_**Author's note:**_ This time around I'll not make you any promises about updates. Every time I made one I ended up breaking it. I swear it seems a curse.

Now, about the story. I have edited it, rewritten parts of it, added to it and even changed the timeline a little bit (the scene from chapter 1 for example before happened later in the story).

I hope you like it better, let me know if you do.

* * *

**  
Layers and Reflections.**

**  
Chapter 3: Past and Future**

_**  
Xavier's Institute. Night.**_

No system is perfect.

Somewhere there is always a glitch, some sort of bug.

An example.

If you add a kinetic memory, total recall, the human subconscious, a twisted thing on the better days, and a life like Sage's, that could certainly be defined interesting, the result is far from perfect.

The glitch?

Nightmares.

They were always so clear, every detail was just right. And they were always so real, not only in the way they played out but even in the contents. They weren't fruit of imagination, something that once awake one could disregard as a fly of fantasy and maybe forget. No, they were always a reproduction of something that had really happened.

Same facts, same feelings, same ends.

Always.

So, more than nightmares one could define them memories of some of the worst moments that Sage had lived trough. And, with the life she had led, many memories were if not black, certainly dark grey. And they played continuously in her head when she hadn't control on it. When awake Sage could decide consciously what recall of her past and what disregard. As everyone else if she knew something she could remember it, what was different was that if she so choose she could recall the exact circumstances in which she had learned it, in every minute detail it had happened.

Asleep she didn't get to chose what she recalled.

So every night she was tormented by nightmares.

Often different ones.

Sometimes some of the favorites returned.

It didn't speak well of Sage's life that there was always one more bad memory to relive.

Suddenly her eyes shot open.

Not a sound was heard in the room. Already perfectly alert, she analyzed her surroundings. The passage from sleep to awareness was always instantaneous for Sage. She didn't know if it was due to her powers or her life.

Satisfied that she wasn't in imminent danger, Sage rose gracefully from her bed, being careful to keep her weight on her good leg. Mindlessly she took her cybernetic shades from the bedside table, activating her direct link and began to browse the last news. The nightmare that had woken her was one of the worst. She knew that was useless to try to fall asleep again after this one. She would be lucky to regain sleep the following night.

It wasn't all that strange, after all she had just relived her family's slaughter with every little unforgettable detail.

Sometimes she asked herself why her Kinetic Memory worked even with facts happened years before her abilities had developed. She hadn't found an answer, yet. It had been strange and frightening to suddenly remember all that had ever happened to her, in every detail, even those she had thanked whatever higher power when she had managed to forget them. It had happened from one day to another, leaving her not a little distressed. She had gone to sleep one day, and had been woken by the first nightmare. It had been the same one of tonight.

She had recalled the day she had lost father, mother, two sister and a brother.

In less than four hours they were all dead.

Some mercenaries had smashed the door of their home, laughing. They had tortured and raped, laughing. They had shot them, laughing.

And then they had left laughing.

Only one survivor, a terrorized eight years old, left for dead with a bullet in her left shoulder.

What happened after that night was another nightmare in itself.

Sage didn't sleep so little by chance. Too many bad memories. To be honest she had tried several times to delete some of those detail, to change those memories to what they had been before the kinetic memory. Without success. When she tried to cancel something from her mind it didn't disappear. Enough pieces of it always remained, always sufficient to rebuild what had been lost. Reconstruction that happened without her conscious control. Probably her mind thought of it as a healing.

But she considered herself lucky, because she didn't need much sleep to function properly. Less sleep meant less nightmares. After four hours Sage felt completely rested. She could go on for days without a single minute of sleep and still be functional and with an hour per night she could last a couple of week before collapsing.

Alone in the privacy of her room Sage donned a robe mindful of her dislocated shoulder and then walked out with the help of a crutch without make a sound. It was a habit learned and perfected early in her life when be undetectable had been as important as to know how to fight. Her stay in the Hellfire had added an unconscious elegance to her walk, a skill expected from all the club's members.

She silently went to her tower passing near Ororo's room. Hearing muffled cries Sage stopped to listen. A couple of seconds of silence before they started once more. This time it wasn't difficult to recognize the words. It was only a sentence repeated again and again.

"No, Betsy, no don't die… not again…"

Apparently Sage wasn't the only one plagued with nightmares. Concerned the cyberpath walked to the door ready to enter in the bedroom to soothe Storm. She stopped herself when she had already put an hand on the knob. She stood motionless in front of the door, unsure about what to do. She knew what she wanted to do.

Then, shaking her head, Sage left.

It wasn't her place to comfort Storm.

But she wanted it to be.

Having finally made a decision about whatever was happening between them, Sage left the door. She had some work to do.

* * *

"So this is where you had been hiding all morning." Bishop said as a greeting once in the tower. "You have missed breakfast, Sage." He reproached jokingly, for the most part at least.

"I have eaten Lucas." The brunette replied, continuing to work, following the promising lead she had found. The nightmare, the memory, had disturbed her more than usual and her decision about her relationship with Storm had given her something else to thought about. Working on the string of robberies had relaxed her and had given her enough time to think about it with calm.

"But not with us." Bishop added with a smile to take the sting out of his words. To be truthful he was still a bit uncertain about the real cause behind Sage's shy behavior. Even after months she still avoided a great part of the team's activities outside missions and assignments, the weekly dinner was the only regular exception to this pattern. Like she was uneasy with them.

"_No, she isn't uneasy with us,"_ Lucas corrected himself. _"…not when she has to interact with a one person or two. She is uneasy with groups of people."_

What really puzzled Bishop were the motives behind it, 'cause as much time he had spent to observe Sage he didn't yet understand if she was simply a solitary person or if she was still uneasy around them. And not knowing made him uncertain about how to behave. He did want to involve her more but he didn't want to make her uncomfortable issuing invitations that she didn't want.

Deciding to not pursue the topic right now, but to do it in the future or at least to talk about it with Ororo, Lucas asked her about work. "Have you found anything interesting?"

"Strange more than interesting." Sage replied almost absent-mindedly, tapping several keys to enlarge something on her screen.

This sparked Bishop's curiosity. "Yeah?" He asked coming close to Sage. Apparently she was reading several description and statement relating to the string of robberies. The windows on the screen opened and closed too fast for Bishop to read more than the titles.

"There are too much favorable coincidences to be really coincidences." She answered cryptically recalling a previous screen on the computer.

"What do you mean?"

Sage gestured with an hand towards the outline she had compiled about the thefts. "Nobody was ever seen or caught while robbing even if, after the firsts few times, the police had increased the patrols. All we know about the crimes it's what we learned trough recordings or other security systems."

"Nearly fifty between thefts and assaults and no one was ever seen?" Lucas was surprised. "I hadn't realized." He remained in silence for nearly a minute before speaking again. "Somehow I don't think it's a case of extreme good luck. So, how it's possible?"

"Good question. I have a few hypothesis." Sage was still studying the screen. It reported the dates, the places and the circumstances of the various crimes among others things. "And some of them I don't like at all." She added after a moment.

Bishop stared at her face. It seemed even more expressionless than usual. He took that as a sign of her worry. "Maybe the mole in the police department hasn't sold only us. He probably informs the criminals about the patrols disposition." He suggested after a while.

"Maybe." Sage said thoughtful. It was a valid hypothesis. "But it doesn't explain everything."

"Doesn't it?" Lucas sounded perplexed.

"No. For example it doesn't explain how that gang knew that we'd have entered in that exact warehouse. Even the police knew only the general zone we would have searched."

"Maybe they were only interested in that specific deposit. Hell, probably they had hidden something illegal in there and they didn't want us to find it."

Sage wasn't convinced."You would order your men to shoot at will when you know that near you there are explosives?" She asked pointing out the hole in his theory.

"Ok" Bishop conceded, before going on to play the devil's advocate. "Maybe they simply choose the first warehouse that they found."

"That deposit was chosen accurately." Sage replied summoning up a map of the area and one of the warehouse with the various points of entry high lightened. "It's the most difficult one to exit from of all the warehouses that we have searched. And there wasn't a way out that they had not blocked."

"Except that air vent." Bishop mused.

"The only one that wasn't visible." Sage added. "I knew it was there from the warehouse plans."

"The plans?" Lucas asked surprised, he knew that the brunette liked to go in a situation prepared but he had never known she prepared to that level of detail.

Sage gave the impression of shrug her shoulders without moving them an inch. "I studied them before leaving the department." She explained a bit more.

Nodding at the information, and thanking whatever higher power that he went in that warehouse with Sage, Bishop spoke again. "So, are you saying that they don't know what they can't see?"

"The alarm systems that caught them were the ones that couldn't be seen." Sage told him. "The others were disabled."

"So, what is it your worst case scenario?"

Sage didn't reply for a moment preferring to study the screen, changing a parameter or adding another bit of information, as if it could held the answers to all her questions. _"Sometimes I like to think so."_ She admitted to herself. "My worst case scenario?" She replied at last. "That there is a precognitive out there that is selling information."

Bishop regarded her with worry in his eyes. "How much is probable?" He didn't like one bit the idea of going up against a seer. Whatever else the search of Destiny's diaries had taught or not taught him, it sure had instilled in him a formidable respect for seers.

"I don't know. But I can tell you what is improbable." She replied looking straight at him. "It's improbable that in every robberies the thefts could have inside information and the exact patrol schedule."

"How you catch a seer?" Lucas asked. This was something new even for him. The precognitive ability was a infrequent mutation.

"You don't, not if he or she is as good as Irene Adler." Destiny, the woman who made them chasing her own diaries, and the promise of a certain future, menacing enough that they had decided to try to prevent, for something like a year. Sometimes Lucas was convinced that had been only a big joke to their expenses.

"And we don't know any seer that maybe own us a favor or two, right?" He asked after a moment grasping at straws. It was said more as a joke that as a suggestion, still one could always hope.

"No, we don't." Came Sage's answer, and something in her tone told Bishop that this had been one of her ideas also.

"_Obviously one that didn't pan out." _He sighed._ "It couldn't be that easy, no?"_ "You sure that we are chasing a precognitive?" He asked more to say something than to question Sage's conclusions.

"I'm sure that if we are, we aren't searching for someone as good as Destiny." Sage replied, and Lucas was strangely sure that if it was anyone but the cyberpath to say the same thing they would have shrugged their shoulder at their own words.

"_Someday I'll even understand how she can give that impression without moving a single muscle." _He thought before speaking again."At least that's something… but how do you know?

"Beside the simple fact that there actually are proof about some of that robberies?"

"Yeah, apart from that." Bishop said smirking.

"You'd call it an hunch." Came the surprising reply.

"An hunch?" He was sure that one time or another Sage had told him she didn't believe in hunches. "And how you'd call it?" Lucas pressed. It was amusing to gently tease Sage. _"At least sometimes…" _On a personal level the brunette was still for the most part a mystery. And even if he was joking more than one he had had the impression that what he had said had somehow hurt the woman. Sage hadn't ever said anything. She simply hadn't replied to his jokes.

Sage only smirked, returning to her work without another word, giving no sign of noticing Lucas presence anymore.

After having waited a answer for more than five minutes, Bishop surrendered and left the tower, a smile of his own on his lips.


End file.
